Federal Judge Halts Pentagon's Supply Chain Risk Label on Anthropic, Calling It Illegal and Arbitrary

U.S. District Judge Rita Lin in the Northern District of California issued a temporary injunction to halt the Trump administration's supply chain risk designation of Anthropic, a U.S.-based company—this label is usually only applied to firms linked to foreign adversaries.

In her ruling, Judge Lin stated that the designation is likely both contrary to law and arbitrary, and constitutes an illegal First Amendment retaliation against Anthropic. Pentagon internal records show the designation was due to Anthropic's "hostile attitude expressed through the media."

The incident stemmed from Anthropic refusing to lift usage restrictions on its Claude model for autonomous weapons and mass surveillance. After the Pentagon's request for unrestricted access was denied, it labeled Anthropic as a supply chain risk, banning civilian agencies from collaborating with it, which could cause billions of dollars in losses for Anthropic.

The injunction will take effect in 7 days to allow the government to appeal, and another lawsuit filed by Anthropic in Washington, D.C., is still pending.